Food Waste Diversion 'Significant Challenge' for Retailers

[Sherman A1]

Food waste at the retail level tends to consist of finished products that may be suitable for donation, but numerous locations and diverse product offerings make food waste diversion a significant logistical challenge for many retailers. That's one of the main conclusions from the industry's first-ever analysis of food waste data collected directly from food manufacturers, retailers and wholesalers.

The study was conducted by consulting firm BSR and commissioned by the Food Waste Reduction Alliance (FWRA), a cross-sector industry initiative led by the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), the Food Marketing Institute (FMI) and the National Restaurant Association (NRA).

“The findings uncovered by BSR are encouraging, but it’s clear we can and must do better when it comes to reducing food waste,” said Michael Hewett, director of environmental and sustainability programs, Publix Super Markets Inc. and co-chair of the FWRA. “It’s important to find more ways to keep food and food waste out of landfills, identify the challenges that prevent us from doing so, and develop responsible policies to assist in these efforts.”

http://www.progressivegrocer.com/top-stories/headlines/national-supermarket-chains/id39382/food-waste-diversion-significant-challenge-for-retailers/?icid=homepage

[SoCalDem]

1. As more and more foods have expiration/freshness dates on them,

the problems will just increase.

Back when shelf-stockers religiously rotated stock, and mega-stores did not exist, this was not such a big issue.

Stores who order incorrectly, (or who have unrealistic quantities forced on them) end up with lots of food that shoppers will not buy.. Don't we ALL search for the stuff with the furthest away date on it?

The packaged deli of a large store may have the same product with 3 or 4 different dates for the same product because the stockers have to fill the space as full as possible.

Then there is the issue of sequestering the "almost out of date/out of date stuff" in an area when it can be picked up by an organization who then has to take it somewhere else and all this takes time & many people along the line.

Potential lawsuits mean that many stores (like one I worked at) require that a box-cutter be used to manually deface/slice open packages and then they are thrown into a locking dumpster.